That's the lazy way to do it, anyway. A better way would be to streak them with an inoculation loop on some malt extract/agar plates, and then select some health colonies to propagate, but I'm going to go out on a limb and say that's more than you'd want to do .

Not necessarily, many yeast strains (Belgian Wit's for example) are mixtures of several strains, I tried this with yeast from Avery's White Rascal and got a very weird beer in the end. You are better off going with the whole slurry from the bottom of a bottle.

As a side note, I have Pacman frozen away in my library, if anyone needs it desperately, we could work something out.

Not necessarily, many yeast strains (Belgian Wit's for example) are mixtures of several strains, I tried this with yeast from Avery's White Rascal and got a very weird beer in the end. You are better off going with the whole slurry from the bottom of a bottle.

As a side note, I have Pacman frozen away in my library, if anyone needs it desperately, we could work something out.

This has been a great discussion. I'm all about trying to culture some from a Dead Guy . . . .wait, that reads wrong, a Dead Guy ALE or 6 (plus its Friday and I'm thirsty). I just need to get my hands on som yeast nutrient. Hmmm . . .. I wonder if I have my old micro Prof's e-mail still.

So, theoretically, I could harvest yeast from my homebrew, so I'll never have to buy yeast again. Awesome (I know this is not true, but in a pinch I could do said activity).

So, theoretically, I could harvest yeast from my homebrew, so I'll never have to buy yeast again. Awesome (I know this is not true, but in a pinch I could do said activity).

It's entirely possible, and a fair number of people do - at least to a reasonable extent. It's still a very smart idea to keep dry yeast on hand because it's always ready to go. I prefer culturing by growing on slants - it takes up very little space, is really easy, and keeps the number of yeast generations low. Plus, it stays very pure without having to wash the yeast, unlike harvesting from a yeast cake.

I should specify that yeast nutrient is commonly used in winemaking, and should be readily available at any homebrew shop. They'll probably call it DAP.

Yep, good point. My LHBS is pretty pathetic, but they've got a small shelf of various brewing-related salts, additives, and other chemicals, and I got a bottle from there, it was just labeled "yeast nutrient", and by looking at it, it's obvious there's several different compounds in it.